TAMPA — When Rick Pitino and No. 23 Louisville came into the Sun Dome on Wednesday, it concluded a ridiculous six-day parade of coaching legends in which USF played host to Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma and Pitino, who combine for 1,986 college basketball wins.

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That's more than double what the USF men's and women's programs have in their entire history, and it gives Pitino the kind of wisdom to succinctly explain his Cardinals' easy 71-57 win against the Bulls.

"We have better talent," he explained. "That's what it comes down to. We have much better talent than they do. In a year or two, the talent will be fairly even. … Next year they'll be very competitive and then they'll turn the corner. Right now, the reason we have more success is more talent."

That talent included rangy 6-foot-9 forward Earl Clark, who scored 22, including three 3-pointers, and freshman Samardo Samuels, who had six of Louisville's 10 blocks before a crowd of 4,827.

Louisville's depth — nine players logged 15 minutes or more — and pressing defense harassed USF's Dominique Jones into a 1-for-10 shooting night, with one assist in 36 minutes. Coach Stan Heath was most frustrated by self-inflicted problems, such as his team's 14-for-29 free-throw shooting. Take away Jones' 8-for-11 effort at the line and the rest of the Bulls went 6-for-18.

"It's horrible; 14-for-29? That's not acceptable," Heath said. "Obviously if you just tack on about eight of those, the lead's a little bit different."

Louisville (10-3, 1-0), meanwhile, didn't get to the line in the first half. "We didn't get fouled," said Pitino, calling Big East officials "the best referees in America."

USF (5-9, 0-2) trailed 49-41 with 11 minutes to play then gave up a 12-2 run that saw five Louisville players score. In one sequence, Bulls freshman Gus Gilchrist — who had 11 points and five blocks — missed a dunk, and guard Jesus Verdejo followed with an airballed 3-pointer, followed by back-to-back turnovers and a blocked dunk attempt by Gilchrist.

The Bulls trailed 68-47 with 1:30 to play, but their reserves scored 10 in 39 seconds after both teams emptied their benches. Louisville's previous three wins against the Bulls had all been by at least 20 points.

Heath, 0-7 against ranked teams in his two seasons at USF, said he's learning the harsh reality of the depth of his new league.

"There's a lot of teams in the league that are going to have to live with this fact: We may play, and somebody else may play, a very, very good basketball game — shoot it well, defend well, take care of the ball, rebound — and still lose," he said. "And that's the problem with this league. It's so good. … We can't beat ourselves up after a loss."